16 



..^- -^ 



.OS^ 



A 



Priority Area Name 



Frame Potholes and Parklands 



2 Central Valley ot" California 



3 > ukon-Kusl^ol\wim Delta 



4 Middle-Upper Atlantic Coast 



? Lower Mississippi River Delia and Red Ri\cr Basin 



6 Izembek Lagoon 



7 Upper Mississippi River and Norrhern Lakes 

 H Northern Great Plains 



4 Yukon Flats 



lU Intermountain West (Great Basinl 

 I I Teshelpuk Lake 



Middle-Lipper Paeihe Coasl 



Klamath Basin 



L!pper Alaska Peninsula 



Copper River Delta 



West-Central Gult Coast 



Upper Cook Inlel 



San Francisco Bay 



Nt United States - SE Canada 



Sandhills and Rainwater Basin 



Playa Lakes 



Fig. 15. Waterfowl habitat areas of major national concern (from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 1984). 



verdins, northern orioles and brown-headed cowbirds. 

 These riparian wetlands were very important to migrating 

 birds in the spring and fail. In Arizona, the yellow-billed 

 cuckoo and blue-throated hummingbird are restricted to 

 cottonwood-willow forested wetlands (Brown, et al. 

 1977). Riparian wetlands may be more important to mi- 

 grating birds in arid regions than in more humid areas. 

 The availability of food, water, cover, and suitable north- 

 south routing strongly influence migrants (Wauer 1977). 

 Alaskan and other tundra wetlands are prime breeding 

 grounds for most shorebirds such as sandpipers, plovers 

 and their relatives. Nearly the entire Pacific Flyway pop- 

 ulations of the cackling Canada goose and the white- 

 fronted goose nest in Alaska's Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. 

 Alaska is also the most important production area for 

 pintail in the U.S. (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 1984). 

 During droughts in the Prairie Pothole Region, Alaska's 

 wetlands are heavily used by North American waterfowl 

 for nesting. 



Hawaii's wetlands are especially important to endan- 

 gered birds. The Hawaiian stilt, Hawaiian coot, Hawaiian 

 gallinule, and Hawaiian duck depend on wetlands for 

 survival. 



Wetlands are, therefore, crucial for the existence of 

 many birds, ranging from waterfowl and shorebirds to 

 songbirds. Some spend their entire lives in wetland envi- 

 ronments, while others primarily use wetlands for nest- 

 ing, feeding or resting. 



Furbearer and Other Wildlife Habitat 



If a fur trapper is asked about the value of wetlands, he 

 is likely to reply that they produce furbearers, like musk- 

 rats, beavers and nutria. Muskrats are the most wide 

 ranging of the three, inhabitating both coastal and inland 

 marshes throughout the country. By contrast, beavers 

 tend to be restricted to inland wetlands, with nutria limit- 



